The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-09-25
TIE NATURE OF MEERsCHAUM
How to Distinguish the Genuine
Article from KaOlin.


A subscriber in Oregon sends a sort
of Macedonian cry for help in the form
of information about meerschaum, says
the Philadelphia American. He doesn't
say why he wants it, but Fred r.
Kaldenberg of New York, who is fam
Gus as an artist carver of ivory and
meerschaum, and who probably knows
more about the latter article than any
body else in the country, readily OWNED
what started him up.
He has found a bed of kaolin, or
china clay, and thinks he has struck a
meerschaum mine. Persons have been
doing that frequently in different parts
of the country, and 1t that way some OF
the finest and most valuable kaolIn de-
posts have been found. Il is a good
thing to have people looking out for
nythjng of value, for even if they don't
get what they are after, they are likely
to catch something else But any body
can IeiI very easily the difference be-
| tween genuine meeNchaum and kaollD
or any other clay. Wet piece of
meerschaum with your tongue, and
then cut shaving off it with sharp
K lie. You will find that it eurls up
Into a regular shaving. Now try that
with lump of clay. and you will see
that all you cut off falls into dust. II you
have a microscope you can apply still
more conclusive test. Break bit OF
meerschaum, and under the microscope
its fracture will show that it is entirely
composed of the most minutely atomic
cockle-shells conceivable, twisted and
matted together into a solid mass.
Nothing else looks like it.
But l should not be at all surprised
if meerschaum were to be discovered
somewhere in this country some day.
We have pretty much every thing that
is found in any other part of the world
Why, do you know, finer amber is dis
covered in this country than comes from
the Old World. l don't know where it
is found, but somewhere in Mexico,
believe, and it is in large, cl ar, fiawless
pieces very often. There are specimens
of amber in the Columbia College
Museum taken from coal formations III
this country, and | have on idea that
our amber is a soliditied and petfified
petroleum. You know that nobody has
ever rightly determined yet what amber
is, although it is supposed to be some
kind OF petrlfed gum. Well it stands
to reason that if we have the amber we
ought to have meerschRum also, or ma
lures design to supply US with the best
pipe material of home production would
be failure. But until we find it we will
still have to depend upon the same
source of supply that the world has had
to rely upon since the days of Pllny,
who knew about as much concerning
this foam of the sea as we do to-day.
n Y
gon correspondent: All the meer-
schaum comes from little place called
Eskischia, in Asia Minor, where it is
found at depth of about fifty feet IN
derground; but how it is found only the
Turks who find it know. Those Tur6s
are ve;55y religious Mohammedans, and
an art lie of their faith seems to be the
duty of killing any Christians who
come about there asking questions con-
corning meerschaums. They have kept
up that practice for so many centuries
that they have finally really made it a
habit. They don't even encourage
their co-religionists in impertinent cur
iosity about 1t. Merchants who deal in
it, and live within five miles of where it
is produced, have never visited the
mines. They are philosophic people,
and prefer living rather than knowing.
When the stuff comes out of the ground
it has much foreign matter of some sort
clinging to it, and mingling with parts
of it. All that is carefully cut away,
leaving only the pure white material, IN
the strsngest, most irregular and fan
tastic shapes conceivable. AS it is trim
med with sharp knife, the workman
rubs it with u thick oily leaf that gives
it handsome polish for the market 1t
is not sold by weight, but by vauntity,
its value being determined by its light
ness and the size of the pieces in which
it is. 1t sells by the box, an arbitrary
measure, The box is about three feet
long, twelve inches wide and twenty
inches high. The contents of one box
may be worth only $50. and of another
$500. The former will consist of perhaps
500 small pieces, while in the latter Will
be only sixty or seventy.
1.-The consumption in the United
States amounts to about 900 boxes a
year. Six or eight years ago it reached
probably l, 500, but the demand has fall
len off one-third in consequence of the
decline in pipe at least the
a andonment of the practice by SO
many of those who could afford to
smoke meerschaum pipes
There is no duty on meerschaum.
WHO du hoo DOCh 1hoOC W pun
a duty upon it, but the importers have
succeeded on each occasion in demon
strating the injustice and inexpediency
OF making it an exception to the law e1-
empting crude materials from duty. !
The business in it has fallen off a great |
DEAL but their still is and always will be |
sufficient demand for it to make it very
well worth any mans while to find an
American mine of it. That reminds US |
that the article that came much nearer |
to the real meerschaum than any other |
thing l have ever seen that was not |
was found up in Yer
mount. l fancy that it must be kind |
OF partly petrified wood 1t was very
light, white, streaked with darker
shades, and had a ibIous grain, very
different from meerschaum in that re-
spect. q "a
"Meerschaum carving is not so good
a business now as it used to be. A. good
carver earns from $18 to $50 week, and
in exceptional cases $25. The payment
is generally a weekly salary, and not
often by the piece. Itwould be difficult